


Town

by YukiSkyes



Series: Tales From the Mountains of Odvirkast [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragons, Gen, Magic, Rated for minor swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-09-28 04:50:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10072637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YukiSkyes/pseuds/YukiSkyes
Summary: On a stint into town that should've been quick and easy, a brief, unwelcome encounter has Keith upset and anxious.





	

If there was one thing Keith hated about living on a mountain, it was that there were some things he just couldn’t obtain or make. This had never really been a big issue before except maybe once or twice so it was practically a negligible downside. Now though, he found himself faced with having to procure items that were either impossible for him to find or he plain didn’t know how to create in the wild. Like measuring tools and paper. What this meant was going into the nearest town to trade for them.

Pidge was an Aviaer, and a young one far from home at that. He would stick out like a sore thumb and with hunters crawling around all over the place, it put him in danger of the less honorable ones. Shiro was out of the question for obvious reasons, which left Keith going on the errand.

For the most part, nobody in Velkri looked twice at each other. It was a bustling hub with too many people coming and going for any one person to get a second look whether they be travelers, hunters, residents, or people here just to gawk at Glasycus.

Keith was no exception. He was just another face who wandered into town.

He knew this, but it didn’t make him any less tense whenever he spotted one of the knights of the Guard patrolling the town. Even with the lower half of his face covered with a ragged scarf, he still went out of his way to avoid them in case they recognized him.

It was pretty stupid. He might have been famous at the Garrison and maybe even a little beyond, but it wasn’t like every single knight would know who he was, especially after so long. But he just didn’t want risk the possibility he’d be arrested and doled the punishment he ran out on or dragged back to serve, whichever one. Garrison politics were tangled at best and Keith had enough of them for several lifetimes. He didn’t want to leave Glasycus and Shiro.

This was why he hated going into town. It made him paranoid. Riding Red down the mountain was the easy part. Dealing with that was the hard part.

Better to get this over with quickly.

Rounding a corner after hiding behind it for a few moments to wait for some knights to pass by, he continued on to one of the town’s many trading posts.

Pidge had already prepared a few small sacks of euphentasia flower petals, which were rare down here. One sack alone would be enough to buy out the shop’s entire supply of paper and then some if he bartered hard enough. Two sacks would be enough to shut the trader’s trap instantly when they inevitably tried to sell him short. In any case, it didn’t matter to him if he lost two sacks or however many it took to get what they needed. Euphentasias weren’t exactly rare where he lived.

A bell above the door clunked as he entered and he was instantly assaulted with the smell of a pungent mixture of spices and animal to which Keith resisted the urge to wrinkle his nose. The space in front of the counter was bare and rather small but it was absolutely cluttered behind it. Strings of dried plants hung overhead on the rafters, some long enough to barely brush the goods piled on top of crates and whatever available surface there was. A shelf on the back was stuffed full of cloth, rugs, blankets, and furs while other shelves had a collection of a random assortment of items including copper kettles, lanterns, some hats, and even what looked like a doll.

The man at the counter was almost stick-like even bundled beneath his fur coat, making Keith wonder how he could survive winters without being knocked over by the wind which, though not nearly as cold as it was in the mountains, was still enough to instantly freeze water some days. His small eyes watched his approach over his beak of a nose, black mustache quivering as he greeted in a surprisingly strong voice, “Welcome. What can I have you for?”

“Do you have paper, cartography equipment, and some jars and bottles?” Keith asked coming up to the counter.

“Yes, I do. How many you need?”

“How much do you have?” Keith asked back.

In lieu of a reply, the man turned towards his stock on the left side and from the bottom of a pile of books resting on top of a rectangular chest, he carefully pulled out a large satchel which he set on the countertop and opened to let Keith see the sheaves inside.

As he took a random sheet out to inspect the quality, the man turned again and from the topmost part of the shelves, took down a wooden box half as big as the satchel. He flicked the clasp off and opened it to show Keith the instruments within. They were each wrapped carefully in cloth and Keith looked through them, inspecting them for signs of damage. He didn’t actually know if any pieces were missing, but he’ll just have to assume everything’s there. 

“As for bottles and jars, I have plenty o’ those.” The trader gestured to the shelf against the right side of the wall where half the thing was dedicated to them.

Keith nodded and said, “I’ll take all the paper, the set, and ten each of jars and bottles.”

“That’s quite the order,” the trader stated neutrally, bracing his hands against the countertop. “You have anything that could match up to the value?”

He didn’t say it but the way his eyes flickered over to the empty-looking pack slung over Keith’s shoulder, he obviously doubted he had anything equal the worth of such expensive things.

Wordlessly, Keith unslung his pack and reached in to take out two sacks of petals, placing them down to let the trader examine.

A bit warily, the skinny man took one of the sacks and opened it down and away from his face.

The aroma that wafted out from it immediately sweetened the air of all traces of the room’s odor and the shocked expression on the trader’s face was enough to make Keith smirk.

Quickly closing the sack again, the trader opened the other one to the same perfume. He breathed it in with a blissful sigh before closing it and nodding, looking happier than before.

“Alright, you have a deal.”

He helped Keith load the glass containers into his pack and together with the satchel slung across his chest and the cartography set in his hands, he left again, the fragrance of the euphentasias, which still lingered inside, wafting out behind him.

That had been short. He was in and out before he even knew it.

“Hey!”

He hoped Red was still waiting for him where she was supposed to in the forest at the foot of the mountains and didn’t get distracted by something else. He didn’t want to call for her and risk someone hearing and witnessing him ride home. It was unlikely anyone would be able to follow, but it’ll make people curious and when people were curious, they tended to investigate. On the off chance the knights really were searching for him, it’ll be one more lead to him than he liked. The less people who saw him or knew about him, the better.

“HEY!”

A hand planted itself firmly on his shoulder and Keith whirled away, unsheathing his dagger and holding it in front of him as he did so.

The owner of the hand gaped at him, the offending limb still hovering in the air where Keith’s shoulder had been before the surprise melted off his face to be replaced with a strange look directed at him.

Keith didn’t care because all he could see was the crest of the Caeris Royal Guard glinting in the winter sun clasped on the standard-issue light brown cloak.

“Hellooo, I’m talking to you!”

Frowning, Keith snapped up the knight’s face, scrunched up a bit in irritation.

“Something wrong?” Keith managed through the stone trying to settle in his throat and down his chest, putting away his dagger again. Didn't want to make it seem like he was threatening a knight.

“Something wrong,” the knight repeated a bit incredulously, his annoyance becoming increasingly visible and growing stronger. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

Keith took a good long look at the knight. Lanky, long-faced, tanned, brown-haired.

“Don’t know you,” he replied shortly, more than ready to move on. “You’ve got the wrong person. If there’s nothing else, I gotta go.”

Keith turned stiffly around to leave but the knight just wouldn’t give up _._

“Hey, hold on a minute!” The knight ran ahead of him and blocked his path, scowling and Keith glared right back, teeth clenched. This guy was a nuisance.

He glanced at the crossbow slung on the knight’s back. Maybe if he surprised him and ran fast enough, he’ll be able to duck away before this guy could even start to get any ideas of unslinging that thing and shooting his back. He did seem pretty dull.

“I’d recognize you anywhere even if you covered your face up. You’re Keith! And there’s no way you don’t remember me. I was your rival at the Garrison! Lance!”

Keith froze for a tenth of a second too long.

“I don’t have time for this. Move!”

He closed the space between them in one step and swept the guy’s legs out from under him. He went down like a newborn fawn with a squawk of surprise and Keith made a break for it.

He pushed through the crowds, ignoring the knight’s cursing and scrambling to get up, and sprinted as fast as he could out of town and into the forest, discretion be damned.

Red was still where he left her and her ears perked as he drew closer, sensing something off about him as he broke through the dry brush because she made a noise halfway between a purr and a whine.

“I’m okay,” Keith assured, trying to catch his breath as he got on her back where he petted the thick fur there. “Let’s… just get out of here as fast as possible.”

Red conceded and did so, leaping through the forest and back up the mountain in powerful, effortless bounds even while carrying a heavy burden.

The whole way up, Keith’s mind was in a storm.

That guy recognized him. He recognized _him even when he covered his face._ If one knight recognized him, how many others could? It was an airhead barely even out of squirehood this time, but what if it had been a higher-ranking knight? How was he ever going to be able to go into town again?

Pidge was inside when he walked in, eager for his goodies and Keith handed them to him silently.

“You okay there, Keith? You look kind of off,” Pidge said, tilting his head to examine him better with a slight look of concern as Keith took off the satchel and set it down with the rest of the stuff.

“I…” He sighed. “I think I need to see Shiro.”

Pidge shook his head. “I don’t think he’s back yet.” He went over to the crackling fireplace and sat down, patting the spot beside him. “Come on, sit down. You can talk to me if you want and even if you don’t, you’re kind of freezing.”

Keith stared, but he broke out of it when he felt a not-so-gentle bump against the back of his legs from Red, who nudged him towards the fireplace.

With another sigh, Keith yielded and sat heavily beside Pidge with Red settling in curled around his back and to his right. He admitted that the heat made him feel a little better but not by much. All it did was thaw out his initial dread into something more rational so that he could run the scenario over and over in his mind and how much shit he could be in.

“So, what happened?” Pidge asked, adjusting his wings so he could brace a bony elbow against his knee and rest his cheek against his palm.

“Nothing. I got recognized by one of the knights,” Keith grunted, glaring at the burning logs as though it was that guy’s face. He ruined everything. “I don’t think I’ll be able to go into town again any time soon.”

“You’re trying to avoid them?”

“Yeah, if I could.”

There was a beat of silence wherein Keith imagined himself tripping up that knight over and over again in his head. It didn’t solve anything but it was better than thinking about the Guard knocking down the door to his house.

“Why is that?” came Pidge’s tentative question.

Keith hesitated. It wasn’t that he was intentionally trying to be mysterious about his past but whenever he thought back to it, it just reminded him about how helpless and frustrated he was during the latter half of the time he spent at the Garrison until it all accumulated and went to Fel in his last mission. He didn’t really want to share that with Pidge.

Instead he said, or growled really, “Because they’re a bunch of assholes who don’t give a shit about the people. All they really care about are their positions and keeping them or raising them.”

There was another bout of silence save for the metaphorical clicking in Pidge’s brain like clockwork as he thought. If there’s one thing Keith knew about him, it’s that Pidge always seemed to be thinking.

Finally, he shrugged. “Yeah, the Guard _could_ be such assholes, huh?”

A small part of him relaxed when he didn’t push. “Yeah.”

Pidge casted a sly grin at him, almost catlike which was ironic. “Doesn’t that include you too?”

Keith scowled at him, but he couldn’t put any real intent behind it. “I quit. I’m excluded.”

“I don’t know,” Pidge said slowly, teasingly. “You did let Red eat my dinner when I wasn’t looking.”

Keith’s eyeballs rolled up so fast, he was surprised they didn’t just pop out of his skull. “You’re still on my case about that?”

“I’ve never been off,” he deadpanned looking him dead in the eye with a blank expression, but it cracked into a grin which Keith couldn’t help but share a bit of. “Well, even if you can never go into town again, it’s okay.” He patted his knee in mock comfort. “I’m sure we can live without pearl necklaces or lutes or magic volcanic ash from Fel or socks—oh wait.”

“Parakeet,” Keith shot.

Pidge’s grin turned a little smug. “You know it.”

\---

That night, when Pidge and Red’s breaths were even in their sleep, Keith got up. As silently as possible, he got dressed, bundled up in his coat, and armed himself with his dagger before slipping out into the yard.

Winter was exceptionally cold after hours, promising to be colder as it got deeper into the night, and the forest was just as dangerous as it was cold in the dark, but Keith knew his way by heart.

He made his way forward through the trees and then angled away to another direction for a long while until he came upon a cliff, the pale light illuminating its rough surface in navy. He counted the paces along its edge and then lowered himself down onto a ledge.

From there, he carefully picked his way along the narrow path down the cliff face until he reached the mouth of a cave hidden in the shadow of jagged rock and ensconced far beneath an overhang jutting out above.

No wind whistled within its depths and Keith knew that Shiro was home.

He walked in, hearing scales rustle against the stone floor and the vague silhouette of moving, Shiro indistinguishable from the shadows. One great eye opened, the silver of it round and luminous like the moon.

“Keith?” Shiro’s voice wasn’t roughed with sleep, which meant he had only just returned. Even if he hadn’t come home tonight, Keith would’ve kept coming back until he did. “Is there something wrong?”

“Hey, hope I’m not bothering you,” Keith said, wandering closer.

“You’re not bothering me,” Shiro denied and then firmly, “You’re always welcome to see me.”

He shifted around to accommodate Keith and then he lifted a wing, a clear invitation for him to nestle against his side. Once Keith was comfortably sitting with his back against his warm belly, he coiled his head to lie on the ground facing him, wings arcing over him in a roof to shelter him from the cold and the world and then he waited.

“A knight recognized me in town today,” Keith spoke up. “Even though I was covering half of my face, he _still_ recognized me.” He frowned down at his lap. “I kind of panicked and knocked him down, but after that, I kept thinking, what if he told someone? What if the knights are on lookout for me now? What if one day they decide to come up here to search? I know it’s really unlikely, but I just keep thinking about it and no matter what I do the thought just keeps circling around in my head. It’s infuriating.” He let out an aggravated breath from between his teeth.

It was plaguing him at the back of his mind all day. He couldn’t sleep. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much. Maybe it was because he hated the Garrison and just the thought of going back made him antsy. Maybe it was because he found something truly _good_ here for the first time in a long while and he didn’t want to lose it. Maybe it was both. Whatever it was, he didn’t know how to express it. It was just this big, unknown black smudge in his chest and the more he tried to pick it out, the more frustrated he became.

“Keith.”

He felt the tip of Shiro’s tail nudge him and it was only then that Keith realized he was clenching both his fists hard.

He let them go with a heavy exhale, the wisps from his mouth barely even visible in the dimness.

“I don’t know. I just don’t feel like this should bother me as much as it does,” he finally finished lamely, giving up.

Shiro waited a moment longer to ensure Keith wasn’t going to be talking again before saying, “Feelings aren’t always things you could reason yourself out of and being discovered out of thin air like that? And then feeling like you probably can’t go anywhere anymore? Those are things that are threatening to your livelihood and that _should_ bother you.”

Keith scuffed the soles of his boots against the ground. When Shiro put it like that, it sort of made sense and it made him feel less like he was overreacting.

Shiro’s tail nudged him again and this time, Keith lifted his arms to allow it to slither around him in what was Shiro’s version of a hug.

“You’re not alone in this. I’ll always be there for you and if there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that I won’t let anyone force you to do what you don’t want to.”

Shiro’s voice was quiet as he said it, but it had a steely resolution to it that made Keith feel safe.

“Thanks, Shiro,” he murmured with a smile.

Shiro smiled back at him. “Next time someone recognizes you and they follow you up, call me and I’ll come and eat them.”

Keith scrunched his face at that, but it didn’t stop the smile from widening. “Ugh, don’t.”

Shiro would never eat anyone, but the stories were amusing like that.

Shiro chuckled, the vibration of his rumbles running down Keith’s back. “Are you going to sleep here? Or do you want me to fly you back up?”

“No,” Keith wiggled around to get more comfortable and Shiro released his tail’s hold on him in order to drape it over him like a blanket. “I’m okay here.”

Shiro hummed, curling even closer around Keith to ensure he was cozy through the night and they both settled in to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> So how am I doing so far? Good? Bad? Boring? What’s the point? Tell me or leave a kudos if you liked it. It’d be much appreciated!


End file.
